"Divine intervention..." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= MEGA MAN 4 An FAQ/Walkthrough For the Nintendo NES Copyright 2005-2006 Richard Beast =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "...so few and far between." - Autopilot Off =============================================================================== Table of Contents: =============================================================================== -!NOTE!- This guide, as you will soon see, is a fair size. Seeing as how this takes effect, you will most likely be lost in trying to find out what you want to read. There is one way to get to it, instantly. Press Ctrl + F, and then look for whatever you want. Let's say you want to go to the Basics section. Type in "4. Basics", and then you'll go to the basics section, instantly! Pretty neat, eh? 1. Introduction 2. Legal Disclaimer 3. Contact Rules 4. Basics 5. Weapons 6. Walkthrough 6a. Toad Man 6b. Bright Man 6c. Pharaoh Man 6d. Ring Man 6e. Dust Man 6f. Skull Man 6g. Dive Man 6h. Drill Man 6i. Giant Driller 6j. Lair Trio 6k. The Room Walker 6l. Dr. Cossack Battle 6m. Giant Metool 6n. The Turbo Blaster 6o. Mechanical Rebirth 6p. Final Battle 7. Damage Chart 8. Bosses 9. Credits -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 1. INTRODUCTION =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ I've honestly lost track of how many guides I've written, and that's perhaps surpassed by how many guides I'm working on at the same time. Xenogears, Colony Wars: Red Sun, a few random secret projects... you name it. I needed a quick side project, and since I've written guides for Mega Man 1-3 as well a 5, this wasn't a bad place to put another guide in. And of course, I only have so long before my motivation runs out (plus it's been dormant for five months before this one), so... eh. The Mega Man series has always been one of my favorite of all time. Starting from just these original six, making their way to the SNES with Mega Man 7 and the X series (1-3 on the SNES), then the PlayStation with the Legends and Misadventures of Tron Bonne, as well as Mega Man 8 and X 4-6, then proceeding to the GBA with the short Zero series and the Battle Network series, not to mention the arcade games... the blue bomber's everywhere. Not all of his stuff is great, but I can enjoy the majority of it. Mega Man 4 isn't one of my personal favorites, but it's still worth a play and at least a look. So anyway, that's practically it. If you've seen the Mega Man 3 guide I co wrote with Steve, or my Mega Man 5 guide, you know what to expect. Enjoy my stuff and don't mind my occasionally rambling and arrogance and such. - Richard "Gbness" Beast -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 2. LEGAL DISCLAIMER =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ You are NOT permitted to put this FAQ on your site without my permission first. All you have to do is email me or IM me saying you want this FAQ on your site, then you can tell me your site and the chance is high that I'll let you. But if you put this FAQ on your site without my permission I swear you will regret it. If I let you, not ONE word should be changed from this FAQ! NOT ONE! Got it? Good. Also, make sure that no money is involved. If you want this FAQ to be sold on eBay, then just forget about it, man. And don't sell this guide either, or pay people to use it, or you'll be in such big trouble you don't want to think. Another little note is that I will not have this guide hosted on many other web sites besides GameNotOver, GameFAQs, IGN, and Neoseeker. You need full-on permission if it's not one of the four above sites. I am sick of people ripping me off (I have been ripped off three times in the past), so if I don't like your site, I won't let my guide be posted on it. I am sorry, but this is how it has to be. If you ask politely and I like your site, you will definitely have the luck of getting it up there. Thank you very much. -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 3. CONTACT RULES =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ You can e-mail me if there is a question you wish to ask that hasn't been answered in the guide, but I REALLY don't want to bother answering questions that have already been done, answered, and done again in the guide, if it isn't too much trouble. Feel free to tell me if there's something I've forgotten, however. My e-mail address is richard_power1000 [at] yahoo [dot] com. Except, replace the [at] and spaces with a "@" symbol and the [dot] and spaces with a period; I have to write like that so I don't get a dozen spam bots e-mailing me and getting me viruses. Just be polite in the e-mail, don't talk like "omg wtf rich ur gides r t3h su><0rz & how du i beat rele big tode", and don't ask something that's already been answered in the guide, and I'll respond. And don't bother sending things like: "You friggin' idiot. Your guides suck, you suck, and everything about you sucks. DIE DIE DIE!" "BURN IN THE FLAMES OF HELL, YOU STUPID RETARD!!!" "What the hell did you think you were doing writing all that garbage, you piece of crap? "I hope you fall down the stairs and break every bone in your body!" "u su><0rz, eVrYtInG BoUt u sUx, dIe ass!!!!!!1" I will laugh at such e-mails and delete them. So... if you're not just playing a friendly joke on me or something, don't bother with that crap cos I've been through with it too much. Okay, that's enough for that. My AIM name is rbeast288; sorry, I don't have MSN or YIM. The list is closed, but I'll add you if you ask politely via e-mail. I like chatting with people, but try not to overdo it on AIM if I add you to my list. Since I am busy a majority of the time and all. -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 4. BASICS =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ You can figure these out in ten seconds by looking at your NES controller, but because I am writing a guide: Up: Climb up (ladder) Down: Climb down (ladder) Left: Move left Right: Move right A: Fire A (Hold Down): Charge Shot B: Jump As for the game itself, you are a fighting robot named Mega Man, and recently Dr. Light created six robots that were developed for world peace: Bomb Man, Guts Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, Ice Man, and Fire Man, but were taken over by an evil scientist named Dr. Wily. However, you (aka Mega Man) defeated them, and after some further complications, a new threat by the name of Dr. Cossack developed eight robots. So you have a new enemy aside from Dr. Wily... very intriguing. Their names are Toad Man, Bright Man, Pharaoh Man, Ring Man, Dust Man, Skull Man, Dive Man, and Drill Man, not the most creative names, but they'll do. To go to a stage from the entrance screen, you've got a screen that looks like this. And you get to take a pick. Non-linearity! ____________ ____________ ____________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [pic] | | [pic] | | [pic] | | | | | | | | | | | | | |____________| |____________| |____________| RING MAN DIVE MAN SKULL MAN ____________ ____________ ____________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [pic] | | [pic] | | [pic] | | | | | | | | | | | | | |____________| |____________| |____________| PHARAOH MAN DR. COSSACK BRIGHT MAN ____________ ____________ ____________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [pic] | | [pic] | | [pic] | | | | | | | | | | | | | |____________| |____________| |____________| TOAD MAN DRILL MAN DUST MAN It's easy enough to guess that you need to beat the eight robots before going on to Dr. Cossack, but right. ou can go through these eight stages in any order you wish, but there ARE preferable orders to go through it with, and the order I'll walk you through it in this guide is my personal favorite. The reason there are preferable reasons is because each stage consists of a level, and a boss. After you beat a boss, you'll get that boss's weapon, and different bosses are all weak against another weapon. Since you're stuck with your arm cannon at the beginning, you're best off starting with one of the easier robots (with Toad Man being by far the best choice), and going on in order of different robot weakness. That's probably all you need to know for now. And by the way, ever since Mega Man 3, you can slide, and you can also charge the Mega Buster now... yay! Alright, let's go. -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 5. WEAPONS =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ================= TOAD MAN'S WEAPON ======================= RAIN FLUSH ======================= OH YEAH MAN! I'M GONNA CRUSH ENEMIES WITH MY SUPER DUPER RAIN FLUSH! As ridiculous as said scenario sounds, the Rain Flush is one of the most useful weapons in the game. What it does is hits everything on screen that's vulnerable to it, with 100% accuracy. And in a lot of cases, it wipes them out. So if there's slow and weak enemies everywhere, the Rain Flush will instantly exterminate the maggots. =================== BRIGHT MAN'S WEAPON ======================= FLASH STOPPER ======================= One of the most overly cheap weapons in the entire Mega Man SERIES, this will freeze time, much like Flash Man's weapon from Mega Man 2, but this one is much better than that, cuz you can actually attack while time is frozen! It'll stop stuff, and you can mash the fire button and just eliminate anything there is. You only get seven uses, though, which each one lasting something like five or six seconds, so make use of this nifty piece of wonder. ==================== PHARAOH MAN'S WEAPON ====================== PHARAOH SHOT ====================== This is commonly seen as being one of the more powerful weapons in the game, but I disagree. I think it's slow, it doesn't have much ammo, and it just reminds me of Heat Man's weapon from Mega Man 2: because it ran out so fast and was so painfully slow, it wasn't that great, plus in this game it's not even the only weapon to charge up! So use it against Ring Man or whatever enemies that are weak against it, and pass it up. At least the flame hits above you, though, so if you want to jump and do that, be my guest. ================= RING MAN'S WEAPON ======================= RING BOOMERANG ======================= The Ring Boomerang will get you through a LOT of Cossack's and Wily's castles, simply because it's so absolutely powerful against bosses like that. Against normal enemies, it isn't really something that I'd get a whole lot of use against, since it's really a short ranged weapon, and although it will get you through some enemies without a problem, I'd just sooner use stuff like Rain Flush or Flash Stopper for that kinda thing. ================= DUST MAN'S WEAPON ======================= DUST CRUSHER ======================= ================== SKULL MAN'S WEAPON ====================== SKULL BARRIER ====================== ================= DIVE MAN'S WEAPON ======================= DIVE MISSILES ======================= ================== DRILL MAN'S WEAPON ====================== DRILL BOMBS ====================== -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 6. WALKTHROUGH =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ And here we go with another one of these wonderful Mega Man games. By the way, just for the record, here are boss weaknesses. Toad Man is weak against Drill Bombs. Bright Man is weak against Rain Flush. Pharaoh Man is weak against Flash Stopper. Ring Man is weak against Pharaoh Shot. Dust Man is weak against Ring Boomerang. Skull Man is weak against Dust Crusher. Dive Man is weak against Skull Barrier. Drill Man is weak against Dive Missiles. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 6a. TOAD MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Easy Although you may find this stage to be annoying, it's definitely one of the easier ones to beat. The first thing you'll notice here is that it's raining, it's pouring, Dr. Cossack is snoring and letting Toad Man try to take care of you *sings* Just no. But it is raining, for any point. Head right across the street, and we find two enemies anyone could have seen coming: a creature carrying an umbrella, and a Flock (of birds). The Flock is very difficult to dodge, as it is made up of several birds. Shoot the biggest one first. Once you get some practice with your new Mega Buster, head to the right and kill a few more enemies until we reach a gap in the road. Easy, right? Wrong; jumps can be rather tough to execute in this place because of the rain and strong wind. The Rush Coil, however, really helps with these. If you don't use that, then you'll have to stand at the very edge of the ledge and then jump. Hard at first, but becomes very easy once you get used to it. Jump to the next part of the street and pass (no crossing guards, though!) through to find more Umbrella-Wielders and Flocks. Again, all you have to do is jump for the birds and hold ground for the Umbrella-Wielders. And we have another jump. The Rush Coil is preferable, although jumping will cut it (although we don't have Cut Man's weapon from the original Mega Man). Make another jump forward, and fall into the ditch on the right. Head left and fall into the next ditch, and we'll find ourselves in the sewers, I guess? Nah, it's too clean to be a sewer. Like before, there's a path to cross, but this time there are waterfalls, these ones leading into bottomless pits. To try and stop our jumps, there are some robots above which will try to land on us. Wait for them to jump into the bottomless pit (ARE THEY SACRIFICAL LAMBS OR SOMETHING?!), and then you can jump! There are some rats on the ground too, unfortunately. However, they pose no threat at all -- what you really want to worry about is the water, which has a push of its own. You'll have to jump at the very end here, but also look at the floor right below it to see exactly what is the limit. Carefully head over to the right, using the Rush Coil if necessary, and follow the path to a ditch on the right. Fall through a couple of these to meet a mini-boss of a snail with eyes! Difficult? Nah... to damage it, though, its eyes need to be open. So wait for it to open its eyes, and deliver a Charge Shot at it. It will throw bombs over at you, and shoot its eyes forward, though, so watch out for that. A few charge shots and it'll be done with, though. Fall through a couple more ditches on the right, and then you'll end up on a small walkway, fighting a snail above! And there's even water here... ouch. It's not that bad, though, just don't step up too far, for Christsakes don't SLIDE, and just charge shot at it while being careful... not very hard. When it's done, proceed up and over to the right. You'll find a river below, with spikes lining it up. And this isn't new to Mega Man fans or anything, but if you touch spikes, you're dead. So take the upper footholds over to the right, which starts fairly simple... However, you'll be attacked by fish that come from the river. Don't proceed too much, and when they jump at you, either jump at them or shoot them up and carry on. You'll come to a foothold with two others in front of you at one point, though, and I recommend using the Rush Coil to jump to the upper one, then jump down and head to the right. There you'll find those epic boss gates that lead to the BIG TOAD! Whoo... scaaary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: TOAD MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This may very well be the easiest boss in Mega Man history. Toad Man isn't the brightest of fellows, constantly jumping and not even trying to get off a hit. Toad Man will, however, fire at you if you don't respond to his actions quickly. Toad Man also has an acid rain attack which cannot miss. He will NEVER attack if you respond quickly, which is shooting and then avoiding his jump. Does it sound easy yet? You bet it is. Start the battle by firing at Toad Man, or he might shoot at you, jump at you, or use Rain Flush, which will prevent you from making it through the battle with full energy. Toad Man will usually jump, so slide to the right. When Toad Man lands, shoot at him. He'll jump around you and prepare to attack, but interrupt him by shooting! Then he'll jump again, allowing you to slide under him the poor toad and fire. And so it goes on and on. When he jumps, slide and then shoot. Repeat the process 27 times for an effortless victory! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 6b. BRIGHT MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Easy Bright Man's stage can be rather... interesting. This robot should have been called "Dark Man" though, looking at his stage. Lampbots will fly around in pitch black rooms; if you destroy them the room will be very dark. Another enemy we'll find is the Fireworkers, which can create dangerous fireworks (very annoying). Destroy them, but if a Lampbot flies by, leave it be. Get between the plasma bullets that it fires, and you'll be all set. Head right and take out a few robots along the way. Of course, a Lampbot will pass by, but ignore it. Hop up the step and destroy a few more robots, and then jump the gap over to the right. Continue onward, shooting off any annoying Fireworkers that get in the way. However, a step and a gap will come after that. Here it is especially important not to destroy the Lampbot; otherwise you'll have to make an already tough jump without being able to see ANYTHING unless you wander around aimlessly for about thirty seconds. After the Lampbot passes, look to the step on the right but do NOT jump. Wait for a Fireworker to fall into the pit and then jump to the step over there and take a right. On the next screen, we've got a creature I call the Quad Gnashers. There are four small barrel-like robots with teeth, stacked up on each other. Use the rapid shot to take them out and then jump behind it when it's gone -- to a grasshopper. The grasshopper will jump you across the spikes, but be aware that sometimes there will be other grasshoppers to jump to, Quad Gnashers to destroy, and pits to jump. When you see a Quad Gnasher, immediately ripple fire as quickly as you possibly can and they'll be gone. Jumping across pits and to other grasshoppers is only too easy. When you're at the ledge on the other side, climb up the ladder to the right. Up the stairs here is an enemy I call the Candy Dispenser (terrible name, I know) that will shoot little balls that look like candy to me. Could be my bad interpretation. But anyway, shoot it down, and you'll notice there's one ladder up to the right, and one ladder over to the left. Rush Coil over to the one on the right, to collect a large energy pellet, which is better than nothing. Now head back down, destroy the Candy Dispenser there again, and then climb up the ladder on the left. Head up and down, around the stairs here, defeating some miniature robots that are weak as my grandma, and then on the right, slide under the wall to reach the next area. Here you'll come to a split in the path: you can continue on to the right to get closer to Bright Man, or down the ladder for some extras. Extras, I say! Climb down, and you'll find three red platforms on a large half circle, and a green platform on the right. The green one stays, going back and forth, while the red platforms can be used once, and then collapse. Jump across the red platforms, jumping off at the very end of them, and at the green platform, just take it to find an E-Tank and an extra life... sweet. Now use the green platform again, and to return, you'll need to use the Rush Coil to jump on the red platforms, and then immediately jump down to the walkways below. Not incredibly hard, but just make sure you have the ammunition. When you're done, use it again if necessary to get up to the left, and climb up the ladder. Back at the last area, head over to the grasshopper on the right, and prepare to do some more WONDERFUL spike jumping! That's just magnificent to all degrees of superb... give the first one a couple jumps and then move over to the right, then keep going using these grasshoppers, destroying the Quad Gnashers on the way, and then at the far right, climb up the ladder. You'll find a weapon energy pellet above, so use the Rush Coil if you want, but it's hardly necessary. Just keep going up to the left. Ready for the most difficult part of the entire stage? First of all, head to the right, and when the Lampbot drops the, well... lights, let it wear off a bit so that it won't be following you across the platforms. Continue taking them one by one, careful not to jump into Lampbots, and keep going until you reach the very far right. When you see a ledge on the far right which goes to the boss gates, don't jump as high as possible, since ramming Lampbots is bad. Finish it off and then head in. BOSS TIME. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: BRIGHT MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All that Bright Man really does is fire a few bullets, in one of three directions: lower-right, straight to the right, or the upper-right. And he also jumps, similar to his predecessor Toad Man, but that's barely anything to concern yourself with. And he WOULD make a good starting boss, similar to Toad Man again, but he's a least little more difficult than that. However, you're about to fight him with a weapon that never misses, so how hard do you think THIS is going to be? Except for invincibility, though. Equip Mega Man with the Rain Flush right off the bat, and use it to instantly get rid of 1/7 of Bright Man's health. And then keep sliding under him when he jumps, jumping over lower or middle bullets, or sliding under upper bullets. Make sure that you only fire the Rain Flush after Bright Man stops flashing, so that it actually does damage. >_> So it's all a matter of survival for the time it takes to use the Rain Flush seven times, but if you're having trouble, use the E-Tank and shame yourself forever. And you get the Flash Stopper afterwards... one of the series' best weapons. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIc. PHARAOH MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Medium My personal favorite stage and favorite boss in the entire game, it certainly makes up for travesties like Ring Man's stage, or Dust Man's name. This place is kind of split into two parts, but I'll say right now that it offers one of the better items in the game if you take another optional path, similar to the one from Bright Man's stage. As for this first part, it's full of sand. Sounds relatively harmless, right? Yes and no. To easily get through this sand, keep jumping in it, because if you don't jump up to get yourself higher ground, you'll just sink into it. Gah, so light... plus there are Sand Scorpions in it, so watch out for those. Keep moving across this rather uneventful screen to the far right, and eventually you'll come to a pit in front of you, and a ledge to the right, which looks accessible. Here's the optional spot. If you're worried about the jump, just use the Rush Coil to get to the other side, and then continue over to the right. There's more sand and more Sand Scorpions here, who cares. At the far right you'll find the Balloon, in which I guarantee will help you out in the long run, like, you know... Dr. Wily's castle. After all this is done, you'll re-emerge inside the "pharaoh's tomb", and such. Time to keep going. Ignore this next paragraph if you found the Balloon, and just skip to the next one. If you fell into the pit, no worries. Fall into the next ditch and continue over to the right past some generic enemies, to find Mummies. These shield themselves decently, but they aren't really a problem... just shoot them, use the Rain Flush if you want. At the end, though, you'll find a ledge above with a Mummy and an E-Tank. WHY MUST I CHOOSE BETWEEN A BALLOON AND AN E-TANK?!?! So annoying... but anyway, use the Rush Coil to get it, and fall in the ditch. So whichever path you took, you'll inevitably land up in this screen of this... tomb. So head over to the right, to find a bat perched a little bit above you. Just wait for it to come down, and then let it taste some blood. You might be tasting blood a little further up if you didn't remember that SPIKES ARE BAD! Always, and especially in Mega Man... plus I don't like getting holes in my body, so it evens out. The platforms here will shoot at you from a distance, and when you jump on them, they'll move over to the right. You don't exactly have much of a choice but to use them, so jump on the first one to get taken over a lake of spikes, which is fatal, like I always say. Avoid the fire from the next one as best as possible, and just keep going, avoiding the bats while you're at it, since... those are bad. You'll get to where it becomes a complete uplift, going up and down here. Do NOT let the platforms take you all the way down after you're through a few of these, or you'll get trapped and left to die. At the end of these lakes with spikes a mile below, just jump over to the right instead of going down and doing it, and then eventually you'll land on some clear ground... phew. I miss it so much. Fall through a ditch or two, and then head over to the right. And just a little bit over there is our favorite beds of spikes, with the platforms laying the sheets. Okay, that was terrible, but just jump on the one in front of you. Let it take you a bit over to the right, where you'll find a mummy in front of you. Just lay it to waste with your absolutely WONDERFUL arm cannon, then jump over to the next one. Just keep going, but don't let these platforms take you into walls or holes, since all they'll go across is spikes, and then fall in the holes. This isn't really any different than usual, so just continue across the walkways to the right, blasting enemies to their deaths as you go, and you will come across the OH EM GEE TOUGH BOSS GATES. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: PHARAOH MAN || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you're fighting this boss without the Flash Stopper, it's going to be a very difficult and incredibly unforgiving battle. However, with it it's a complete joke. Pharaoh Man is quick, furious, and jumps all over the stage inflicting pain on you. Not exactly someone who you'd want to go out to dinner with. Plus he can charge up a shot above his head and fire it, so you'll have to jump over that and be lucky at the same time. So if you don't have it, I recommend E-Tanks. You'll get through this without even taking a single hit if you have the Flash Stopper, however. Just freeze time with it, and keep Pharaoh Man in one absolute position. Now keep mashing the fire button to let the energy come out and blast him over and over. His life gauge will go down quicker than your weapon bar will, so after a little while, he'll end up dead. What a complete, absolute joke... And for that, you get the Pharaoh Shot, you lucky man. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VId. RING MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Hard This is a beautiful stage! It's not annoying in the slightest, and it has the best music in the entire Mega Man series! Alright, I hope some of you see my sarcasm. Ring Man's stage has rainbow colored, disappearing lasers in which you must cross, and it's really, really bright and then later becomes too dark: not fitting at all. Ring Man himself is a very difficult boss to beat, and this has the second worst music in the entire game, aside from Dust Man's. Alright, I'm done ranting. We've got a long way to go. You'll begin on a solid laser, but you'll see it disappearing before you. If you don't want to be dropped onto the floor, you must quickly jump to the platform on the right. There are turrets placed on the walls, both in which will be shooting at you. Switch to the Flash Stopper, but don't use it yet. Jump past them and climb up the ladder, and we find a more complicated path of lasers, along with some turrets. Jump to the platform on the left and shoot at the turret there, then jump to the right and shoot the next one, then simply climb the ladder. Instead of turrets, we've got enemies I call Saturns. Sure, they aren't the planet Saturn itself, they're just little robots with rings across them, but they sure look like Saturn, despite being red. Shoot the both of them with the Flash Stopper and climb to the next ladder. Do not yet use the Flash Stopper. Hop out of the path of lasers and shoot at the nearest turret. You'll probably get hit by a turret before you do that, but no worries. The Flash Stopper will stop time in time in a flashy way (is this the most repetitive sentence of all time?). Once you destroy the next one, jump to the path at the top and climb up the ladder, then run to the right and we find one of two special enemies in Ring Man's stage, this one being a fat, ugly, overgrown hippopotamus. This isn't difficult at all. If you have more than four uses of the Flash Stopper left, this would be a perfect opportunity to use one of them. Destroy a part of the... thing that's holding the robotic hippo up, and then you can easily destroy the rest of the hippo and the missiles that it can shoot. Once the hippo is destroyed, head onto the next screen, and... more laser fun! Jump first to the platform on the right and then jump along. Once you get to the next platform, jump up and intentionally fall through the lasers if you want the large energy pellet there. If you got it, slide to the left, and just go ahead and get hit by the Moving Thorns. It won't hurt to lose a little snippet of your energy bar, just so long as you don't lose too much. Slide backwards and jump back up to the laser again, making your way back to the platform you were on before. Jump to the next platform and walk forward a bit, until the laser starts moving below your foot. When it starts restoring itself, run as fast as you can and shoot from in front of you, for you are now walking above spikes. When you're at the other side, climb down the ladder and OH EM GEE you'll find a pair of eyeballs surrounded by rings. Dear lord, help us! And no, I am not kidding. It's a DANGEROUS pair of eyeballs surrounded by rings! Without the Flash Stopper, this would be an annoying battle, but since we have it, cast it not quite yet. The eyeballs will open, which is the only time they're vulnerable. The rings will be sent all over the place, although they're harmless if they can't move! So while the rings are separated from the eyeballs, jump and shoot at the eyeballs while time is frozen, and it disappears! From where it was, jump into the ditch and we'll see that a hippo wants revenge for its brother... If you have two uses of the Flash Stopper left, use it now. Otherwise, use the Rain Flush to hit the hippo and take out the missiles it fires at the same time. After using it about six times, carry on... blargh! We have come to a much different set of lasers, and soon we shall find pits and spikes, along with enemies. The lasers themselves, instead of going off from left to right, will go off from right to left. Which means you'll have to stay away from the laser, make a long jump halfway across, and then make another one to the end. Jump to the small platform on the right and when you're ready, jump to the center of the laser. You can wait for the laser to drop you though, since there's one below. Whether or not you fall, jump to the other end of the laser and continue, fighting off the Saturns in the way. Continue jumping into the middle of the laser and then to the end of it while making sure you get a hold on the Saturns at the same time. After that, fall into a few more ditches and then... No, it's not Ring Man's lair yet, although it's right behind. It's another pair of shielded eyeballs! Like before, wait for the eyes to open and then freeze time, and then shoot those eyeballs until they're completely gone, you very kind man, you. Once it's gone, head straight until you run into the boss gates of doom. DUN DUN DUN. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: RING MAN || DIFFICULTY: HARD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is by FAR the most difficult boss of the game, even topping Pharaoh Man if you don't have the Flash Stopper against him. Even if you have the Pharaoh Shot, this fight isn't as easy as you might think that it would be. For one thing, Ring Man is fast as hell, moving quickly and being almost impossible to dodge. Plus, his Ring Boomerang is fast, and it's just extremely hard to avoid him unless you time your jumps incredibly carefully. And that's much easier said than done. So unless you have about three E-Tanks, don't enter this fight without the Pharaoh Shot. Even so, I'd recommend having one E-Tank handy, just in case. Four charged shots of the Pharaoh Shot will take Ring Man out, plus if it touches him, that's not the full damage, but it'll still inflict a major blow upon him. So stay away from him, move carefully, and hold down the fire button to charge up the Pharaoh Shot and hit Ring Man with it. He'll succumb to that quickly, but still... make sure you're ready to heal yourself up. Assuming that you got past that, you get the Ring Boomerang. ROCK ON, MAN! Dust Man's crappy stage, now. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIe. DUST MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Easy Oh man, this music is so awesome... and man does the breathtaking design shine in its beauty... again, sarcasm. This stage is another annoying one, almost as much as Ring Man's. However, instead of being treated to a VERY TOUGH robot to fight, we're treated to a VERY EASY one. Let's do the level a favor for that and complete it, shall we? The stage starts as some Mech Shields will pace back and forth, attempting to knock you off your feet. Jump around them and shoot from their backs to destroy them. After a few more Mech Shields, we come to a very familiar Mega Man element: guardians that can jump out at you when you try to jump to another platform. You know how it's done: wait for the guard to jump out and then jump to the next platform. Defeat the Metools along the platforms and keep jumping, occasionally stopping to look that the guards don't go too high and then two of them come out. If that happens, just wait. Otherwise, carry on. When the path meets an end, jump into the ditch. Fall off the path and land into the left. Head right until the path ends yet again... OMG TINY RED PLATFORMS ARE RISING TO MAKE BIG BLOCKS! Yep, paths are forming, but at least they don't disappear (for a while, at least). As soon as a block rises, you can jump on it and then wait for the next few to appear, and then jump there. Just defeat the flying robots in the way, and you're all set. Be careful to avoid the spikes and pits below as you jump. After you get past all the platforms and flying robots, jump to the ladder at the end of the path and climb up to meet Fliptop, who will hopefully give you an extra life or an E-Tank (you can collect as many as three E-Tanks in Skull Man's stage, so it's all good). After you're rewarded, head beyond this glorious checkpoint and climb up the ladder on the left. This place can get very annoying if you don't have any experience with Mega Man. There are some Metools in the way, which can easily be dispatched by waiting for them to come out of their shells, but what is worse (a lot worse) is tubes above you which will go down and up, down and up... if the tubes go far enough down, they'll crush you under them, effectively killing you. There's lots of dust (lol) in which we have to destroy to get past, some with really low tubes before it. Let's get crackin'! In front of you is a barrier made up of several blocks of dust. Shoot the dust repeatedly to make it fall to pieces, and if there's a large line of dust in the way, charge up a Mega Buster bullet and throw it there, destroying all the dust in its path. It works. Once you clear most to all of the way, proceed to find a Metool and some more dust. Destroy it just the way you did there, and avoid the low point of the tube, it's not nice. Another Metool, and another lower part of the tube to avoid. What's a lot worse than that is all the dust right ahead of the lower part of the tube, with no higher parts in between! That's right, you'll have to destroy as much dust as you can and simultaneously slide in and slide out when necessary. There's also a Metool before the lower part of the tube, so it's made even tougher. However, don't forget our beautiful, beautiful Mega Buster. Wait for the tubes to go as high as possible, while waiting outside and charging your Mega Buster. Destroy a whole line of blocks in the way, as well as a few more here and there before the tube gets low again. When it does, slide out of the way, take the Metool out again to pass time, and charge your Mega Buster. Destroy another line of blocks and repeat this simple process until a good path is made for you to exit! Ah! Now go to some non-dangerous area, without any low tubes! When the tubes right ahead are down low, head under the higher tubes and then pass under when you can. On the next screen is a Turbo-Shooter. Take it out with constant fire and walking under the bullet shots, and you'll find that it's guarding Dust Man's lair! Just head right into the lair, and start with that dusty old man, errr... robot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DUST MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dust Man's extremely easy as long as you have the Ring Boomerang, and he happens to be pretty easy without it. ;) Dust Man fights somewhat like Magnet Man from Mega Man 3, in that he will try and pull you closer to himself. He also tries to fight somewhat like Guts Man from the original Mega Man (Capcom needs to stop with Guts Man already) and throw a box of thick, solid dust at the wall, which can be slid under. The box then turns into debris, which can be ran away from. Dust Man can also jump around sometimes, but that's all he's got. To defeat him, simply use the Ring Boomerang and when Dust Man tries to pull you toward him, hit him with the great ring. When he jumps away, use the boomerang on him, and use it twice as he shoots a dust box, after avoiding the box itself by sliding, of course. Easiest fight in the game besides Toad Man. YOU GOT THE DUST CRUSHER! LET'S PAR-TAH AND GET DRUNK, YAH?! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIf. SKULL MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Easy My personal second favorite stage in the game, cuz it's not as annoying as Ring Man's stage, it's cool, and the music is good. Plus at least Skull Man has a decent name... can't say that for Dust Man or Dive Man. Rant over, anyhow. Head to the right to find some cannons simply planted there, and all you gotta do is shoot 'em with 'yo arm cannon. Not too bad, yo? Head to the end of the first path, having done that, then jump over to the left and follow that path to the left to blast some cannon. Continue to the left and get that done, then jump up to the right and keep going. It's fairly simple, going on over there, jumping across a few things here and there while mashing the fire button to get rid of what meager opposition there is along the way. Now climb up the ladder on the right to reach the next incredibly small area, with a Skeleton there. To easily take care of it, wait until it throws a bone, and then use a Charge Shot on it. Fairly simple, but you can't hit it normally. Just to let ya know. Climb up the ladder on the left, and then you'll find a Rocket Wall right above you, as well as a path that goes under it. You're pretty much forced to deal with the Rocket Wall, since the lower path is nothing but a dead end. Get rid of the Rocket Wall with a Charge Shot when its back is to you, and keep going to find a threeway fork of these. The lower path will take you to a large energy pellet, but as for the two other paths, I like the middle one but it doesn't really matter. Take care of the bats as you go, and then emerge to the right. Hope that wasn't too bad. Climb up the ladder, and Eddy will even treat you to something! Gotta love getting rewarded for next to nothing. Climb up the ladder, and then you have a fork of either continuing to go up this ladder, or heading to the right. If you keep going up, that's the next part of the stage, but start by going to the right for some treasure. What I like to do here, mainly because I don't mind getting hit a little bit, is climb up to the upper walkway and head to the far right. There are a lot of Rocket Walls on all of these four walkways, so make sure that you take them out. If you want an easy instant kill, just use the Rain Flush. But anyway, at the end of the upper walkway is a large energy pellet, and then you can drop down and take the second path above over to the left. Use the Rain Flush to take care of any... dangers, and then at the end of the second walkway, jump up to the third one and keep going to the right, where you'll find an E-Tank at the end. Well, that's that. Now return to the ladder and climb up. Head over to the right, and follow this path all the way to the end and jump up to the left to continue with this wonderful madness. A call these enemies the Beetles, and they're not hard. Just destroy them, jump up, and head over to the right, to find an E-Tank below you. Don't try that yet, just continue over to the right until you can jump down, and then if you want that E-Tank (which I didn't), you'll have to pull off a very finicky jump to get over there, and then keep going until you reach the E-Tank on the lone platform. Have fun getting back up, although using the Balloon to get to the ledge on the left, and then working your way back over to the right, might work. Keep going down the ladders. Head over to the right, where the blue sky fades into sunset! Yay... and it looks a lot better than Ring Man's stage, I have to say. I recommend using the Flash Stopper for this entire area, since it's full of Skeletons that become vulnerable, and stop attacking, if you're using it. However, if you don't, it'll be a lot of tedious jumping to individual platforms, and then waiting for eons for the Skeleton to throw the bone at you, and then charging up a shot. So... in summary, use the Flash Stopper, since you won't be needing it against Skull Man. Continue to the right, using the high ground whenever possible, and laugh at everything that can't move while you just fire at it... HAHAHA! See, follow my lead! Just jump over to the far right, and on the upper right walkway, continue for five small energy pellets, and then jump down and go through those scaaary boss gaaates... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: SKULL MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Not the hardest boss in the game, if you have the right weapon. With the Dust Crusher, there isn't too much difficulty that can come out of this fight, but still, Skull Man is one hard bastard to get past. He's tough to jump over, he doesn't do much of it himself, and what's more, he has the usual arm cannon, and plus the Skull Barrier, which will form a ring of voodoo around him that protects him. Not good. So this isn't a fight in which you want to evade everything. That's where pure offense comes in. The Dust Crusher will eliminate Skull Man in seven hits, plus you have 28 of them, so don't worry about running out of them. However, you can't hit him while he has the Skull Barrier up, and what's more, he'll just keep it up longer if you just hit him over and over again with the Dust Crusher. So go slow and steady through this, and don't worry about getting hit, since you're a lot stronger than he is. This is over, and... ...you got the Skull Barrier. Whoo-hoo... on to the inferior named Dive Man, blah. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIg. DIVE MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Medium Horrible boss name, and not one of my favorite stages either... eh, I guess the music is okay. The boss is the second hardest in the game in my opinion, right behind Ring Man, though, so be ready for a good tussle at the end. This stage starts out uneventfully enough, on a small walkway with some water in front of you. You have a choice here, of either taking the platforms above the water, or using the Rush Marine. I like the Rush Marine here. Just steeringly steer your Rush Marine along over to the right, avoiding enemies and whatever other obstacles there are. If you do choose to take the platforms, however (and I spit on you for such bad choices), note that if you get in the water, you can jump higher. Still, spikes are bad and they're almost entirely unavoidable with the Rush Marine, so it really comes down to that. If you took the platforms, jump down at the end, and either way, continue into the next area. There's a mini-boss of a shark here, who is far easier with the Rush Marine still handy. Just keep firing and it's gone, and if you DON'T have the Rush Marine in use at the moment (heaven forbid), just jump up and down and fire. With such high elevation as you have right now, such isn't extremely hard. When it's done with, continue over to the right, and you'll have to jump across a spike bed with three Shellfish above it. Not hard, just keep moving up the ladder. Enter our good friend Eddy! Get a prize from him, and then head up the ladder and to the next area. Just walk over to the right and beat one simple, meager little robot along the way, and fall into the water to reach the checkpoint and new area. Been there, done that, anyway... this IS a little different, though, in the fact that the water will be moving up and down. When it's moving down, you can't jump as high, simply cuz there isn't enough water there to jump. Fairly easy to see. I DO have to tip my hat to Mega Man's life support system, however. But anyway, this screen isn't exactly much. All you're really doing is jumping across platforms over spikes, with Shellfish everywhere, and also Pufferfish, which will puff up when they get near you. Still, they always seem to swim at _exactly_ the right angle as Mega Man's arm cannon... ;) Get my drift? With that, head to the screen on the right. The shark here is the same as the last one, except no Rush Marine this time. Just slaughter it with your usual arm cannon, and then move on to the next screen, which has a ditch around the left, and a path to the right. I highly recommend jumping into that ditch, since it has one super cool item in there. It's not mandatory or even really needed in any circumstance, but hey, it's extremely cool, so why not? When ready, jump inot the hole. You'll be falling down various screens until you reach the wire at the bottom, so just be ready. In the first screen, lean slightly to the left, because on the second screen, the right will be completely lined with spikes. After that, lean over a bit to the right, since the spikes on the left will be slowly advancing. With that screen past, center yourself a bit, and then you'll fall past two screens until you reach that Wire. Sweet, baby! Of course, you'll have to go all the way back, but oh well, that's just life for you, always working against you. Just head back to that fork, and then start heading to the right, to find Spike Bombs. They aren't as dangerous as you might think from looking at the name, but they are something to avoid. Just watch out for them, and also don't stay too close for them for too long, or they'll explode in your face. And that would make you a sad panda. Continue to the right, and make sure that you time your jumps well, so that the water and platforms of spikes aren't just going to come crushing down on you. Keep moving past these lines of enemies, until you find five bombs lined up towards the boss door. Just jump over them, and feel free to use any weapon besides the Skull Barrier that you want... they're vulnerable to everything. And once you're ready, prepare for the evil boss gates of ultimate doom... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DIVE MAN || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some people think this fight is really easy, but I deem it to be the second hardest boss in the game, behind Ring Man. For one thing, Dive Man really has two attacks: he can jettison forward like a torpedo, which hurts like PURE, ABSOLUTE, DESTRUCTIVE HELL, or he can fire his Dive Missiles at you, which hurts like hell. Between those two worlds of pain, I deem pure, absolute, destructive hell to be the worse of them, so what you should try to do is AVOID DIVE MAN'S FRIGGIN' TORPEDOS. Unfortunately, this is easiest said than done, since he likes to jettison forward to a point where you'd land on him, which makes jumping not the best option. Plus his missiles are fast and dangerous, but your arm cannon can cut through them. However, if you're going to use his weapon, the Skull Barrier, against him, you'll have to get at least marginally close to him. And that does NOT mean letting him jettison forward, right on top of you. Otherwise you'll just take damage. You can only to be hit by the torpedos four times, and it'll take seven skulls to bring Dive Man down. If you have an E-Tank left, this is really the battle to use it. So what I'd recommend is to cut through the missiles, get close, and then jump away quickly. If he jettisons forward while you're on the other side, you'll just have to jump over him, and make sure that you move accurately, hence to avoid it. For your efforts, you'll gain the Dive Missiles. Sweet. Last stage, at last! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIh. DRILL MAN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Medium For this one, this isn't necessarily a very difficult stage. In fact, I consider the beginning of it to be the finest part of the entire game. It's classic Mega Man at its best, but as for where you are... it's some sorta factory. I dunno. Just head forward and up the initial steps there, with some Metools in the way. You don't REALLY need me to guide you through Metools, right? Arm cannon fire works well. Head to the right and climb up the ladder there, to find a Mechanical Crusher on the left. From such a distance, it's no threat, so get past it and head up the ladder on the left, which is just a long path over to the right, with some Metools surrounding. If you really want to, use the Flash Stopper, but I find one very good use for it, later in this stage, so don't consume all of it. When you're done here, climb down the ladder on the right. This next room is full of bats, who are easily eliminated by deploying a quick and easy Rain Flush. Jump down over to the left and fall into that ditch there, to find another screen with bats. However, you'll notice that at the bottom right, there's an extra life. Don't try getting that if you don't have the Balloon, but if you do, it's simple. Simply reach the ledge on its left, use a Balloon, and jump over there to get it. Then use the Balloon to get back... told you it'd come in handy. Enter the next screen through the hole on the left, and you'll come to an area with the top and bottom littered with spikes. See what I said, classic Mega Man! Advance over to the right, and when you get to regular ground level, you won't have to worry about touching them, but I'd watch out for them either way. Propeller Bugs, as I call them, are around here, and as much of a nuisance they are, just shoot 'em and don't mind 'em. Climb up the ladder on the right. In here you're treated to three platforms with tanks on them. Just use the Rain Flush to instantly eliminate them, and if you're paranoid about jumps and spikes, use the Balloon to get over to the left and up that ladder. Here you are at the halfway mark, and there's an E-Tank above you! What gives?! To get it very easily, just use the Wire you got from Dive Man's stage, and jump over to the left. Told you THAT would come in handy. Jump over to the right and up the steps, fighting Circle Tanks as you go. To defeat them easily, just have Charge Shots prepared and then launch them when they're in range. Don't let them start circling around, though, or they become invincible. And as we all know, dat's bad. Continue to the screen on the right, which is where the Flash Stopper can REALLY pay off, right about now. See, you're going to the right, and rocks will drop out of the yellow pipes above. But NOT if you're using the Flash Stopper! Make sure you've got at least three uses of the Flash Stopper ready, and proceed to the right. There are a lot of Aero-Guards right above you, except they're helpless, unable to do anything. So keep going across this rather uneventful ground, making your way to the right. If you aren't using the Flash Stopper, however, then may you be eternally shamed, but I WILL say that the rocks are very dangerous, and you want to get near them, then jump back and immediately slide forward. The Aero-Guards die in a couple hits of the arm cannon, so if you don't use the Flash Stopper, don't worry about them. However, as you continue forward, you'll find what seems like dead ends, with levers nearby. These will activate new ground, but some of these require a bit of noting. If there's a lever way below in a distance, just jump towards it and you're guaranteed to fall on the land as it opens. However, there's one a bit above you, and just barely to the right. It IS the last lever, though, so if you're dying up to this point, it's over. For this one, jump right in front of it and then immediately back, and ground will open up below. If you got that E-Tank and don't have any extra lives, use it now because the boss is a bit unforgiving in that aspect. Avoid the last few rocks, and then proceed into the doors on the right, which mark the gates of bossly doom... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DRILL MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This fight CAN be won without taking any damage, but it's a bit difficult. For one thing, Drill Man has two attacks, much like everyone else, and that does not include running into him, which is the most damaging thing of all. Drill Man can burrow himself into the ground and then appear right under you, which is his stronger attack. Plus he can fire the Drill Bombs, which have good range and very high speed, so you'll want to jump over those immediately. But worry more about the burrowing. When Drill Man burrows himself, he'll be temporarily invincible for a second, so don't use that exact moment to fire off the Dive Missile. Keep sliding all over the place, and much more often than not, you'll avoid Drill Man when he re-emerges. And he'll be invincible for one quick moment, then give you the time of the battle to hit him with the Dive Missiles. He'll take quite a few of them before he goes down, though, so keep an eye on your life bar. After that fight is over, you'll obtain the Drill Bomb and Rush Jet, and Dr. Cossack's citadel will open up. Ready for the ultimate part of the game? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIi. GIANT DRILLER =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Easy We'll begin outside of Cossack's citadel, first out in the snow. It's frigid cold out here and slippery, so watch where you walkin'. Jump to the step above and charge up your Mega Buster, then take out the worm there with one hit. Jump off of the step, and then continue walking along. I like this place so far, although it'll get annoying! Jump up the large set of stairs on the right and successively blast the worm there. And then you can proudly (not) fall into the pit on the right side... Instead of doing that, stand on the step before the pit and jump to the ladder on the right. While climbing, tap R1 twice to make Mega Man become a bright green! You may not have used this since Bright Man's stage and can't remember what it is, but it's Toad Man's Rain Flush. There are two Rollers in the next room which can become a big nuisance, so it's better to have a 100% chance of killing both at the same time with one attack while being far away from them. ;) After that moment of fun, refill your energy/weapons with any pellets that they may drop and climb up the ladder on the upper-left. In the next area, we find... Skeleton from Skull Man's stage? Bah; who decided on this?! However, like before the Flash Stopper is an excellent asset, moreso here, since there are Pit Guards here, which can easily knock you into the pits below. First of all, freeze time. Now take a right and shoot that immobile Skeleton to oblivion, and jump until you reach another Skeleton. Kill the Skeleton with the Triangle button (the Flash Stopper's bullets) and time will probably freeze again midfire. Jump some more pits until the next one, then shoot it and time will freeze again. To be safe, jump to the ledge below, then mash Triangle until time freezes again, since you do NOT want a Pit Guard to catch you mid-jump here. When time is frozen again, head to the left side of the platform, move forward, and jump. Time should still be stopped. Jump to the next platform, climb the ladder, and take out the Skeleton. Now jump to the next ledge and climb the ladder, and switch out the Flash Stopper for the Rush Coil. Jump on Rush, get to the next platform, use it again, get to the next ladder, climb up, ignore the enemy, use the Rush Coil, get to the next platform, use the Rush Coil again, get to the ladder. You know the drill, but don't use the bombs. At the top of the ladder, you'll see two small machines on the ladders that will open and close at their leisure, as well as move up and down. When they're closed, you want to avoid them. You can climb past them if they're open, however. When they close, use the Rush Jet to get to the ladder on the left and the machine will open, allowing you to pass through. Ignore all other ladders, as they lead to dead ends. At the top, you will meet a Smasher. All you have to do is stay there, shoot away, and open the gates... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: GIANT DRILLER || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I get to Giant Driller's lair without taking a hit several times, and I've also beaten Giant Driller himself without taking any hits at a couple of occasions. Giant Driller is a large face (O_o) with a drill at the bottom of his chin, which can drill through the floor and make holes. This is what you should avoid; if he does this you'll take lots of damage. If he runs into you or he hits you with a bullet of his (it looks like the Pharaoh Shot) it's also damaging, although it's not too easy to get damaged. The weapon of choice here is the Ring Boomerang. Giant Driller's only weapon spot is the core around the middle, so start chasing! Giant Driller will start by levitating to the right. Don't get too close to his "ears", and shoot at the core with the boomerang for 1/7 of that gauge to disappear! Now simply repeat this while trying to avoid getting under him as best as possible. It's quite simple and easy to do. It's not over. Moving on to the second part of Dr. Cossack's citadel... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIj. LAIR TRIO =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Medium At last you're within the reaches of Dr. Cossack's citadel? Exciting? Oh, it only gets better. Here you're treated to two ladders, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left will lead to two plants to take care of and a longer path, the one on the right is one large ladder and a trap from the previous stage along the way, but a shortest and more direct way to the next screen. I prefer taking the ladder on the right, but that's just me. So take either, being careful of enemies. Head over to the right and jump up, then sliding over the microscopic gap over the spikes, to reach a small pathway, with some skulls dropping out of the ceiling... that's always a bad thing. But there's a long bed of spikes in front of you... how to get past it? Yep, the Rush Jet. There are some of the usual enemies along the way, but the main things you have to worry about is the footholds along the way. If you bump into these footholds, you're dead meat. However, you want to fly above them so that you get the weapon energy pellets on them. It also goes without saying that you want as much altitude as possible, so that you can... ya know, reach the ladder on the right? So when you get over there, climb up, and you'll find four platforms with spikes on them. They alternate between having spikes on top/bottom of them or on the left/right of them, so you'll need to get across carefully. Jump across the first two when the spikes are to the left and right, careful to avoid the spikes themselves, and when you reach the second platform, wait for them to flash, and then jump over to the left and keep going up, and up the ladder. And here you'll find another of these, which CAN simply be done by jumping from platform to platform and reaching the ladder above, but why do that when you can simply use a few Balloons? Use a balloon immediately to your right, then stand on the far right of it and use one on the left. Using three if really necessary, reach the ladder on the high upper left, and then head over to the far right. You'll find an elevated ledge in front of you, and there are numerous ways to reach it, but my preferred is the Wire, cuz it's so cool. Repeat with the next walkway above, collecting an energy pellet on it, and then head over to the right, above the spikes below. Climb the ladder to the right all the way to the top, and this next area is pretty simple. Just slide it on over to the left. Climb up the ladder on the far left, to find the top of it having a trap on it, and there being three ledges to the right. To start with, make sure the trap is as high as possible, and jump down to the walkway at the bottom. Climb up the steps on the right, and at the top, fire a Drill Bomb at the wall to your left. Now collect the weapon and health energy pellets at the bottom, and at the very end of the second ledge, jump up and to the left for an E-Tank... awesome to the max. The trap tends to stay at the very top if you're on the third ledge, so head down to the second one and slide back over to the ladder and climb back up. On this last screen, you CAN use two of those alternating platforms, but the Wire works much better. Get between the second platform and the ledge at the top with an extra life, and when the spikes are up-down, jump over to that ledge for some major bounty. And you have to get back down when they're up-down too, just for the record. But anyway, the boss gates await! Doom, doom, doom... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: LAIR TRIO || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This isn't your everyday boss fight, but be sure not to lose it, cuz the second checkpoint isn't at the gates that come in. But anyway, the Lair Trio is the room, more or less. It's three parts of it, anyway, which will come in and out at different speeds: fast, medium, or slow. If it's fast, you'll KNOW that it's fast, and you'll take damage unless you slide under it. When it's slow, however, what you want to do is jump on the first part and then keep sliding, so when they come together you'll be on it. Jump up one of those two platforms and use the Dust Crusher on the core, which will attack by firing a large laser bullet at you. That's dangerous, and plus it's VERY hard to avoid. Feel free to send me via e-mail a way to avoid that attack and still manage to get in a lot of hits yourself, so if you want to use that E-Tank from earlier, this wouldn't be a bad time to use it. The Dust Crusher only needs to be used seven times, before you get an awesome light shower... Not bad on your part. Prepare to go to the skywalk or something of Dr. Cossack's citadel... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIk. THE ROOM WALKER =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Easy You know, you just look at this stage and think that it's really calm and peaceful and stuff. And in fact, to an extent it is, but it gets dangerous when you start going, and it's automatically scrolling. Yep, this place automatically scrolls forward, and if you go too fast or too slow, this stage will murder you there. However, it's really short and sweet, right before the battle with Cossack. Start heading forward, and you'll find three platforms that'll take you forward, each moving upward, and the second and third have those electric orbs to jump over. Then it's a couple more platforms, and you'll find a tank above, and a pretty clear path above, but just eliminate the tank to find some more platforms going over to the right. Then you'll come to some more electric orb platforms, and another up-down fork, but going down is a bit safer this time. Either way, up or down, doesn't matter, although if you take the upper path you'll end up with a weapon energy pellet out of it. Make sure you take out the tanks, with the Flash Stopper or whatnot, but the Flash Stopper will NOT stop the auto scrolling. You'll come to a few more tiny platforms as both paths become one, and a weapon energy pellet on the left, but just continue going, blowing up a tank or two as you go. To end the first half of the skywalk, it's just a simple, ordinary Mech Crusher. Hah, not much. Get past it and climb up the ladder, to find two spikey thingys blocking the way to the platforms. To destroy them both, just use the Dust Crusher, and then keep going up the ladder on the left, to get to the checkpoint and also the second half of the auto scrolling skywalk. It's just few ledges up, and you'll find the golden blocks. Not exactly worth their weight in gold, however. Jump on the first one, and you'll find that if you jump, it'll move upward, so that's something to take advantage of... standing on it will make it sink. So with that in mind, head over to the far right, jumping across these and blowing up a few Saturns along the way. Not literally the planet, but just those ring shaped enemies from Ring Man's stage. It's fairly uneventful, going from ledge to golden block, and such. When you find a block right against a wall, however, jump on it as quickly as possible, because the screen will keep auto scrolling, and before it goes all the way down, you might end up crushed by the scroll. And then follow the path to the right and you'll find the boss gate, but HOWEVER! There's an E-Tank on the left, which can only be acquired by using the Balloon. Face the steps on the right and use the Balloon right there, then jump to the right past the Balloon, then to it, and slide under. Nice... ready for the boss? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: ROOM WALKER || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yeah, I call this boss the room walker because it literally walks the room. How cool is THAT? This boss isn't very hard, however. In fact, this is probably even easier than the Giant Driller, if that were at all possible. In fact, there are two weapons that work particularly well against it, those being the Drill Bombs and the Pharaoh Shot. As for the Room Walker itself, all it'll do is walk through the spikes below, left up the walls, on the ceiling, down to the right, and just move all around the room firing a few bullets at you. Barely a threat at all. You ARE set on three platforms, however, and if you jump down or fall off... you are a dead man. However, I just played this whole fight out on the left platform and never even moved. Just jump and fire a charged Pharaoh Shot at it, and then it'll keep walking everywhere, and when it comes around, it'll get under you and fire four bullets in opposite direction, but if you jump between two of them, they're easy to avoid. Then it'll come up over to the left, available to be shot down, and then it explodes? Yeah, there's another one. Same old, repeat, win. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIl. DR. COSSACK BATTLE =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Easy You've done well... you've made it to the game's twelfth stage, where you'll come face to face with Dr. Cossack at long last. And trust me, this stage is really short. Not to say it doesn't have some degrees of difficulty, but this stage is quite a bit shorter than usual. You'll find a large ditch to fall in as soon as the stage begins, and if you lean towards one side, you can collect a weapon energy pellet on either side. Or if you're desperate, just use the Rush Coil to get the other one for two weapon recharges. ;) Now fall into the next ditch to find a room with just a few annoying little tanks here and there. Use whatever you want, anything works. Then fall down to the left, and you'll find a wall with an E-Tank behind it. Hah, DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL? HUH?! Drill Bombs, kthxbai. After you've got that, fall down to the left. Here you're treated to just a Mech Crusher, and we can advance further... yes we can. Slide under the ledge here, and then if you want the large energy pellet, jump up to the right, and just when the electric orb moves under the platform, do two jumps over to get it. Moving on... climb up the ladders on the right, to find a small room with three bats in it, but also a rather hard to see shortcut. See it? That's right, climb up to the right and use the Drill Bomb on the wall to the right, and you can just fall in there. But hey, who wants to do that? Climb up the ladder to the left if you don't take the shortcut, and you'll find... great, rebirth of Dust Man's stage, except without the cool part of it. It's just jumping across holes, which is very easy with the Flash Stopper, but either way, just manage it across and head into the hole at the right, and in this room, there isn't exactly much. Just a tank and a weapon energy pellet... gotta value those, since weapon energy doesn't replenish from one stage to another. Fall into the hole on the left. Skull Man's stage, all over again... this time it's those Rocket Walls. Just use the Drill Bombs to take them out immediately, and fall down to the floor, where the shortcut and regular path group up again, but don't even try sliding down to the left. Just head on over to the right, where you'll find a ledge with two electrical orbs on it, but that's unnecessary when you get more stuff, right? Use the Wire when both orbs start going under the platform, and at the upper part of the room, use the Drill Bomb to get past the wall there, as well as the Rocket Wall (yeah, the Drill Bomb is good at destroying walls), and fall down to the right, collecting the energy pellet along the way. When you fall into that next ditch, head down some simple old stairs to the left, to land in what's essentially the second half of the stage. Congrats! ...Just kidding, it's actually the last room. All there is here are those falling skulls, which can be stopped with the Flash Stopper if you're really desperate. Right after the first one, you can use the Wire to get to the ledge above, but I wouldn't do it, personally. Just keep heading over to the right, cautious about the falling skulls, and enter the door through the right. Prepare to spar, once and for all, with Dr. Cossack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DR. COSSACK || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This fight is shamefully easy for what it actually is... in fact, you're not facing Dr. Cossack himself, since robot vs. man in an armed battle seems a bit odd, unless you're going to wear a whole lot of arm. Dr. Cossack is piloting a UFO like thingy, with pincers at the bottom. If you move directly under him, he'll pick you up and smash you down. And I'll let ya know that that's fairly painful. Plus he has the usual gun fire, but who cares about that? Focus more on Dr. Cossack. There are two elevations here, with the upper one making it easier for both you and he to hit each other. His weapon of weakness is the Dust Crusher, and it'll take quite a bit of punishment with it for him to go down, but this fight is relatively simple. Just jump in between the fire to avoid that the most easily, and as for the pincers, just slide under them when they come after you. In the mean time, use the higher ground to hit him with the Dust Crusher, and this disappointingly easy fight will be over. After that, the truth is all revealed, and you'll go to Dr. Wily's castle... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIm. GIANT METOOL =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Easy A fairly practical stage in overall, well... practice. This is the stage of a Giant Metool, no more and no less. Plus, the first part of this stage is full of Metools, who are easily flushed out (no pun intended) with the Rain Flush. So just climb up the ladder right at the entrance, to see some steps covered with Metools. Finish 'em all off with a simple one hit kill, and then climb up the next ladder. In this room, you've got five Metools, two of them being "dancers". They're easy, but don't die in one hit from the Rain Flush. Use it first of all, and then with the "dancers", just shoot them down with the arm cannon, and then head up to the upper left and up the ladder there. And here you get another choice between sliding down a structure or climbing up it. I recommend climbing up the structure, wiping up Metools as you go. Collect the large energy pellet via a good slide, and then just keep going to the right. It's just some Metools which pose little to no threat, so just keep going to the end, where you'll find a weapon energy pellet just a little bit below. Just hug on to the left and get a weapon out for a charge, and then as for the next screen, it marks what's really this stage's halfway mark. Plus there's water on the left... OH NOES! Fall in, but don't fall to the very far left, because this entire part of the stage is littered with spikes. And Metools, for that matter, but they're not exactly a threat. Note that you CAN jump as high as you want, just like from Dive Man's stage, but that's not the smartest option in the world. Keep going until you reach the top of a pillar that's above everything else, but there are two spikes right above, and two spikes down below. Just keep walking to the right and you'll automatically avoid those. As for the next set of stuff, just slide to avoid the crap, and the next thing you know is that there's one bed of spikes on the ceiling, and one bed below! What gives? Hey, the Rush Marine works extremely well here, so pull that one out. Keep going and crawling right through those spikes until you reach the wall at the end. Now get rid of that Rush Marine (REJECT'D), and then hug the wall at the right and jump to just baaarely avoid those spikes. Scary, I know. Keep climbing up, and you're past the spikes and water, but not past the danger quite yet. The first thing you want to do is use the Dust Crusher to get rid of the Motor Spike, but anyway, this is one of those lovely puzzles we all know and love. Plus I'm doing my horrid ASCII for this, so that's something else you got to love. (exit) |-| |-| ___ |-| | 2 | ___ |___| | 5 | ___ |___| | 3 | ___ |___| | 1 | ___ |___| | 4 | |___| (start) |-| |-| |-| |-| Starting from the top of that ladder, jump to block #1, and you'll immediately have block #2 right over it, so immediately jump to block #2, then to #3, and then #4, and get over to #5 and up the ladder. The next one is much harder... both in suffering through my terrible ASCII, and in getting across, since if you fall off, that's your life... at the mercy of the spikes. (exit) |-| |-|_____________________________________ ___ | 6 | |___| ___ ___ | 4 | | 5 | ___ |___| |___| ___ | 3 | | 1 | |___| |___| (start) ___ ___ |-| | 2 | | 1 | |-| |___| |___| |-| ____ The easiest way to get through this is NOT to use the Rush Jet, since that'll just cause you to run into blocks unless you do it right. The correct way to advance is to jump on block 1, then right after block 2 appears, just upon #3. Then to #4 with the same timing, and then you're safe at #5. Jump up at the usual timing, and even if you miss block #6, you'll fall to the ledge near the second #1, so even should that happen, the Wire will save you. Told you it rocks. So with that, you've made it through the spikes and my horrible ASCII. You can easily survive everything else. It's just some average structures going to the right, with three walkways starting it off. Unless you really need an energy pellet, take the upper walkway to the right, and you'll find a bunch of water tanks. One of them has an E-Tank, so eliminate the Metool in it and keep going to the right, killing enemies, and reaching the OH EM GEE BOSS GATES. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: GIANT METOOL || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another really easy boss... much like the beginning of Dr. Cossack's castle, this boss is weak against the Ring Boomerang. So pull that one out, and start hitting it when it opens up. All it does is just jump around, which isn't very easy to avoid, but can be done with a good slide, and when it falls, Metools will come down from the sky. If you're in the mood to switch weapons, the Skull Barrier will take them out instantly, if they come towards you. Still, the Skull Barrier has only 14 uses in it. Something to note is that there will always be two Metools falling to the left and two on the right, and they'll exit that way, so if you get between and jump over them, they have no chance of hitting you. And that makes finishing off the Giant Metool fairly simple, since you can get in about 2-3 shots of the Ring Boomerang in between each of these. You shouldn't need to use one of those E-Tanks, so just finish it to continue... scary. Now it gets really scaaary... ready? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIn. THE TURBO BLASTER =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Easy The fourteenth, and last normal stage in the game. And it starts off scaaary enough, with three walkways, three ways to slide under, and one upper path. The upper path goes nowhere, but to avoid spikes that are right up ahead, take the second to highest slideway. And right about here is where the stage REALLY starts getting absolutely FRIGHTENING! Fall onto the platform after the slide, and then jump to the next platform, and to the ladder. Take note that the spikes are absolutely everywhere. When you get on 'dis ladder schtuff, climb down, defeat the usual in the next room, and jump across the two small platforms, and you'll have to fall through a gap while still avoiding the spikes. Just do so, jumping right between them, and keep hugging to the right when you're past those. You'll fall on a small foothold, and have two holes to jump to in the ground. And there's also an E-Tank way high above. You shouldn't go out of your way to get this E-Tank, since I personally had three right now, but if you really need it, just use the Balloon a time or two, making sure you get the jump just right, so that the final jump to the E-Tank ledge is perfect. Then you can just fall into the hole on the right, which is by far the better hole to fall into anyway. Both lead to the same room, but where you fall differs it. If you take the left hole, you'll have to go past a bunch of Motor Spikes, which can be beaten easily with the Dust Crusher, but are still annoying when you're like, sliding through them. With the upper path, it's just those worms from Skull Man's stage... barely a threat. Both will lead to one last enemy, and a large pit at the right. Use the Rush Jet here, to get to the ladder above, and climb it on the way up. In this next, rather simple room, slide over to the left so that Eddy can give you a nice, good treat, and then climb up to the top. There are two ladders here, which the left one taking you into nothing but an unavoidable attack by a Motor Spike. The right one, however, lets you go forward, so the choice is obvious. In this next, miniscule room, just manuever your way around the steps here, not waiting for the worms. Copyright that to David Gilmour, of course. Keep going over to the left, and then climb up the ladder above to find a room filled with those mummies we all loved, from Pharaoh Man's stage. If you want a VERY fast and efficient way to eliminate them in one hit, just use Dive Missiles and enjoy. Continue going to the right, using those missiles to spank some monkey... errr, mummy, and use the Wire to collect a large energy pellet along the way. Nice, now keep going to the right and up the ladder there. As for this next room, it's full of bats (see, scaaary as always), which can all be taken out with the Rain Flush, and then you have the choice of the left or right ladders. As usual, taking the one on the right works better, because while the one on the right is longer and makes you fight some Skulls, it's better than nearly running into spikes, which the left puts you in danger of. Using the right and killing Skulls (ironically) on the way, slide to the ladder and head up. In this next room, it's just the circular enemies from Dust Man's stage, so get up, slide over to the left, and climb up the ladder there. And in the next room it's my FAVORITE enemy, the Candy Dispenser we all loved from Bright Man's stage! Because of the long distance, though, you can shoot it down and jump over the bullets fairly easily, though. Make it across the footholds here, defeating one more Candy Dispenser along the way, and then... BOSS TIME! SCARY! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: TURBO BLASTER || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Notice how all these bosses are all so extremely easy? This boss is no exception, although it is big and powerful and really scaaary. =( And like about a million other bosses in the game, its weakness is the Ring Boomerang. So start by getting on the platform on the left when it comes down, but AVOID the cannon balls that the Turbo Blaster will fire at you... those hurt a lot. Of course, the fireballs are dangerous too, but the cannon balls are your main concern. Make it over to the platform on the right, and you'll notice that the weak spot is the green core on its head. You CAN use the Drill Bombs, which are decent, but the Ring Boomerang is much more efficient. Just keep jumping when you reach it, taking specific care to avoid the cannon balls. The fireballs are okay, but if you see a cannon ball coming, jump off the platform if necessary. With some rings up its head, the Turbo Blaster will succumb very quickly. You've NEARLY made it! Whoo-hoo... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIo. MECHANICAL REBIRTH =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Medium Boss Difficulty: Medium You KNEW this was coming up, admit it. You'll now have to struggle through the robot masters all over again, but this is a perfect opportunity to use up the E-Tanks. Make sure you have some of them handy, and as this stage begins, grab the E-Tank and extra life, and change your weapon to some that are really empty (I recommend having the Skull Barrier, Pharaoh Shot, Rain Flush, and Flash Stopper as full as possible), to get the weapon energy pellets. When ready, fall through the hole... Slaughter some Rocket Walls here with the Drill Bombs or whatever, then keep going to the right, and fall through the hole there, for two screens. The next screen is just some plants, so get past them and fall through to the left. Just one more insignificant Rocket Wall, then you can go on to the boss gates on the right... hardly. Just head to the teleporter up there, and when you re-emerge, fall down about three screens, and it's TIME AT LAST! Once you're here, you'll find eight teleports, three at the left, two at the bottom, and three at the right, lined up like below. I'd start with Ring Man, then Toad Man and Dive Man, and then going to Pharaoh Man. After them, I'd go to Drill Man, make my way down, and end with Dust Man. So how about some quick strategies? Drill Man Pharaoh Man Bright Man Ring Man Skull Man Dive Man Toad Man Dust Man ================== THE WORST BE FIRST ====================== RING MAN ====================== As the name implies, we ought to do the worst of the batch, Ring Man, first. He's by far the toughest, being that he's so fast and rough. It's much better if you come here with a full supply of E-Tanks, just in case. Charge the Pharaoh Shot as much as you can and fire at him constantly, while jumping over the Ring Boomerangs and avoiding Ring Man's body. Make sure every hit counts, and with enough power (try to catch him in the jump with your Pharaoh Shot), you'll win. ================== MOVING ON WE GO... ====================== TOAD MAN ====================== Shall we recover from wounds on the previous battle? Really, even though we have the Drill Bombs in this battle, I wouldn't use them. It can result in Toad Man unleashing some acid rain on you, we need to conserve Drill Bomb ammo, and Toad Man is perfectly easy with the Mega Buster. Simply shoot him when he jumps, slide under him when he jumps again, and repeat the process until he's dead and get a large energy pellet for free! ================== ANOTHER LARGE RISE ====================== DIVE MAN ====================== Dive Man is the second toughest of the robot masters, which is why we should now try him, being at full health. Equip the Skull Barrier and slide forward, waiting for Dive Man to get close. Get really near and make sure he gets hit, and jump when he charges forward. He'll probably attempt to hit you with a missile, but that shouldn't be a trouble. Land not quite on him, but near him, to damage him. After that long and tough fight, let's go to an easier one! ================== LET'S TAKE A BREAK ====================== PHARAOH MAN ====================== Easy battle, this one! Start by using the Flash Stopper, for the (unfortunately) final time we will use it. :( Kinda makes ya sad, doesn't it? Anyway, freeze him and then jump repeatedly, making sure he doesn't get a free hit on you. Keep the Triangle button hold down and the Flash Stopper will reset itself, freezing time repetitive times. Wait until it goes down to the bottom, and we're done with the first four of these robots! ================== THE HALFWAY MARK ====================== DRILL MAN ====================== Drill Man is stuck right in the middle between a lot of these bosses. He's roughly half the difficulty of Ring Man, but he's much tougher than Pharaoh or Toad Man, so it evens out. He's got the same strategy with burrowing into the ground, so to more easily eliminate him, just use the Dive Missiles when he erupts, and make sure you don't take too much damage, since Bright Man isn't EXTREMELY easy... not saying much, though. ================== THE PATH GOES ON ====================== BRIGHT MAN ====================== Like the previous fight with him, the fight with Bright Man is purely trying to avoid his attacks. Bright Man is quite weak to the Rain Flush, just like before. Slide away from him and throw it in the air to hit him, jump around so he's less likely to hit you when he freezes time, and keep a good distance from him. As long as you jump over his fire, it's possible to win this battle without taking a hit. ================== YOU AREN'T SCARED? ====================== SKULL MAN ====================== Skull Man is the most frightening robot master by far, but that's no reason to get scared, eh? Equip the Dust Crusher and run at him; usually he will shoot at you with his buster. Break down the dust with the crusher, and wait for him to turn on his shield. Get near, but not TOO near him and wait for the shield to stop. Don't worry; with that shield on he's harmless! Use some more dust boxes to crush him after the Skull Barrier goes down, and Skull Man is gone. ================== ONE OF THE EASIEST ====================== DUST MAN ====================== Yes, Dust Man is definitely one of the easiest of the robot masters, along with Toad Man, Bright Man, and Pharaoh Man. Keep a good distance from him and get the Ring Boomerang on, and when he fires a dust box, slide under it and hit him with a boomerang. Avoid him when he jumps, and when he tries to pull you toward him, wait for him to stop and then get a quick hit on him to find him a pile of rubble. That was easy! And with that, the grand and almighty teleport opens to allow you to take on... DR. WILY! YEAH BABY! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: SKELETON MECH || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This fight is quite a bit more difficult than anything else you've faced since the robot masters. Come to think of it, everything in both Cossack's and Wily's castles have been pushovers, up to this battle. You'll start against a normal skull, which fires pink balls of energy at you. Painful looking enough, but to easily avoid these, just stand in the middle between the far left and the skull mech, and then slide over to the right when the three come out, and then hit him. Simple as that. Skeleton Mech's weakness (right now, he has two forms) is the Ring Boomerang, so just repeat this process and enter total annihilation... then it'll reveal itself to be Dr. Wily. Heh heh heh... this is a lot harder and much faster, but for easiest results in damaging him, you'll need to use the Drill Bomb and back off. Jump and fire, then right before it hits him, press the A button again to make it explode. Continue to do this, while doing your best to avoid the fire. Standing around the middle and sliding, pulling back might work, but it'll make damaging him easier. E-Tanks certainly help, I have to say. Now... ARE YOU READY FOR THE _FINAL_ BATTLE?! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VIp. FINAL BATTLE =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Level Difficulty: Easy Boss Difficulty: Medium This is it, you're about to face Dr. Wily, one on one, to the end of the game. And you obviously shouldn't need me to guide you through this pathetic stage, but I will say right now that Dr. Wily's weakness is the Pharaoh Shot, so when you get an opportunity to recharge your weapons, make sure that the Pharaoh Shot is full. When you're ready, head through the ULTIMATE, DIVINE GATES OF JUDGMENT, to fight Dr. Wily at long last... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DR. WILY || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And this fight is a lot harder than over half of the battles in this game, but it IS quite beatable, even if Dr. Wily will be appearing and disappearing a bit. If you have one E-Tank left, though, that's more than enough to get you through this battle. The Pharaoh Shot is his weakness, so be prepared to use that. He'll use four lights to join together and fire at you, so try and avoid that, since it packs a decent punch. Sliding works well. Yet again I'll say that the Pharaoh Shot is his weakness, but he's a little bit out of the way for it. What I recommend doing is keeping watch on where he'll appear, and while avoiding the shots that he'll fire at you, keep the charged Pharaoh Shot above your head, and when he appears, jump to hit him with the flame ball over your head. If he DOES appear at good range, though, feel free to shoot it at him. Regardless, this fight isn't the most difficult you'll ever face in the history of gaming. Congratulations on your beating of Mega Man 4! Pat yourself on the back, hug yourself in a fuzzy manner, enjoy the ending, play Mega Man 5, read my guide for it, etc... -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 7. DAMAGE CHART =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ So what the hell is this section, one might ask? Well, this chapter covers the robot masters and how many hits it takes them to die, with every weapon in the game (yes, including their own). Oh, and just in case you didn't know, every enemy has 28 lines of energy and each hit takes off 1 line, which explains all the 28s. AND DO NOT EMAIL ME ASKING ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS. THE ROBOTS TO THE RIGHT ARE THEIR WEAPONS, AND THE ROBOTS BELOW ARE THE ROBOTS THEMSELVES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY ALL CAPS. ============+========+======+=======+======+======+=====+======+=====+=======+ Robot | Buster | Toad | Brigh | Phar | Ring | Dus | Skul | Div | Drill | ============+========+======+=======+======+======+=====+======+=====+=======+ Toad Man | 28 | 28 | N/A | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 7 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Bright Man | 28 | 7 | N/A | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Pharaoh Man | 28 | 14 | N/A | 28 | 28 | 14 | 28 | 28 | 28 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Ring Man | 28 | 28 | N/A | 7 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Dust Man | 28 | 28 | N/A | 28 | 7 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Skull Man | 28 | 14 | N/A | N/A | 28 | 7 | 28 | 28 | 28 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Dive Man | 28 | 28 | N/A | 28 | 28 | 9 | 7 | 28 | 28 | ------------+--------+------+-------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+ Drill Man | 28 | 28 | N/A | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 9 | 28 | ============================================================================== -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 8. BOSSES =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Being that I am an incredibly nice person, I will list bosses back here as well as in the walkthrough. Nope, you don't have to tell me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: TOAD MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This may very well be the easiest boss in Mega Man history. Toad Man isn't the brightest of fellows, constantly jumping and not even trying to get off a hit. Toad Man will, however, fire at you if you don't respond to his actions quickly. Toad Man also has an acid rain attack which cannot miss. He will NEVER attack if you respond quickly, which is shooting and then avoiding his jump. Does it sound easy yet? You bet it is. Start the battle by firing at Toad Man, or he might shoot at you, jump at you, or use Rain Flush, which will prevent you from making it through the battle with full energy. Toad Man will usually jump, so slide to the right. When Toad Man lands, shoot at him. He'll jump around you and prepare to attack, but interrupt him by shooting! Then he'll jump again, allowing you to slide under him the poor toad and fire. And so it goes on and on. When he jumps, slide and then shoot. Repeat the process 27 times for an effortless victory! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: BRIGHT MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All that Bright Man really does is fire a few bullets, in one of three directions: lower-right, straight to the right, or the upper-right. And he also jumps, similar to his predecessor Toad Man, but that's barely anything to concern yourself with. And he WOULD make a good starting boss, similar to Toad Man again, but he's a least little more difficult than that. However, you're about to fight him with a weapon that never misses, so how hard do you think THIS is going to be? Except for invincibility, though. Equip Mega Man with the Rain Flush right off the bat, and use it to instantly get rid of 1/7 of Bright Man's health. And then keep sliding under him when he jumps, jumping over lower or middle bullets, or sliding under upper bullets. Make sure that you only fire the Rain Flush after Bright Man stops flashing, so that it actually does damage. >_> So it's all a matter of survival for the time it takes to use the Rain Flush seven times, but if you're having trouble, use the E-Tank and shame yourself forever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: PHARAOH MAN || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you're fighting this boss without the Flash Stopper, it's going to be a very difficult and incredibly unforgiving battle. However, with it it's a complete joke. Pharaoh Man is quick, furious, and jumps all over the stage inflicting pain on you. Not exactly someone who you'd want to go out to dinner with. Plus he can charge up a shot above his head and fire it, so you'll have to jump over that and be lucky at the same time. So if you don't have it, I recommend E-Tanks. You'll get through this without even taking a single hit if you have the Time Stopper, however. Just freeze time with it, and keep Pharaoh Man in one absolute position. Now keep mashing the fire button to let the energy come out and blast him over and over. His life gauge will go down quicker than your weapon bar will, so after a little while, he'll end up dead. What a complete, absolute joke... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: RING MAN || DIFFICULTY: HARD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is by FAR the most difficult boss of the game, even topping Pharaoh Man if you don't have the Flash Stopper against him. Even if you have the Pharaoh Shot, this fight isn't as easy as you might think that it would be. For one thing, Ring Man is fast as hell, moving quickly and being almost impossible to dodge. Plus, his Ring Boomerang is fast, and it's just extremely hard to avoid him unless you time your jumps incredibly carefully. And that's much easier said than done. So unless you have about three E-Tanks, don't enter this fight without the Pharaoh Shot. Even so, I'd recommend having one E-Tank handy, just in case. Four charged shots of the Pharaoh Shot will take Ring Man out, plus if it touches him, that's not the full damage, but it'll still inflict a major blow upon him. So stay away from him, move carefully, and hold down the fire button to charge up the Pharaoh Shot and hit Ring Man with it. He'll succumb to that quickly, but still... make sure you're ready to heal yourself up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DUST MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dust Man's extremely easy as long as you have the Ring Boomerang, and he happens to be pretty easy without it. ;) Dust Man fights somewhat like Magnet Man from Mega Man 3, in that he will try and pull you closer to himself. He also tries to fight somewhat like Guts Man from the original Mega Man (Capcom needs to stop with Guts Man already) and throw a box of thick, solid dust at the wall, which can be slid under. The box then turns into debris, which can be ran away from. Dust Man can also jump around sometimes, but that's all he's got. To defeat him, simply use the Ring Boomerang and when Dust Man tries to pull you toward him, hit him with the great ring. When he jumps away, use the boomerang on him, and use it twice as he shoots a dust box, after avoiding the box itself by sliding, of course. Easiest fight in the game besides Toad Man. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: SKULL MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Not the hardest boss in the game, if you have the right weapon. With the Dust Crusher, there isn't too much difficulty that can come out of this fight, but still, Skull Man is one hard bastard to get past. He's tough to jump over, he doesn't do much of it himself, and what's more, he has the usual arm cannon, and plus the Skull Barrier, which will form a ring of voodoo around him that protects him. Not good. So this isn't a fight in which you want to evade everything. That's where pure offense comes in. The Dust Crusher will eliminate Skull Man in seven hits, plus you have 28 of them, so don't worry about running out of them. However, you can't hit him while he has the Skull Barrier up, and what's more, he'll just keep it up longer if you just hit him over and over again with the Dust Crusher. So go slow and steady through this, and don't worry about getting hit, since you're a lot stronger than he is. This is over, and... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DIVE MAN || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some people think this fight is really easy, but I deem it to be the second hardest boss in the game, behind Ring Man. For one thing, Dive Man really has two attacks: he can jettison forward like a torpedo, which hurts like PURE, ABSOLUTE, DESTRUCTIVE HELL, or he can fire his Dive Missiles at you, which hurts like hell. Between those two worlds of pain, I deem pure, absolute, destructive hell to be the worse of them, so what you should try to do is AVOID DIVE MAN'S FRIGGIN' TORPEDOS. Unfortunately, this is easiest said than done, since he likes to jettison forward to a point where you'd land on him, which makes jumping not the best option. Plus his missiles are fast and dangerous, but your arm cannon can cut through them. However, if you're going to use his weapon, the Skull Barrier, against him, you'll have to get at least marginally close to him. And that does NOT mean letting him jettison forward, right on top of you. Otherwise you'll just take damage. You can only to be hit by the torpedos four times, and it'll take seven skulls to bring Dive Man down. If you have an E-Tank left, this is really the battle to use it. So what I'd recommend is to cut through the missiles, get close, and then jump away quickly. If he jettisons forward while you're on the other side, you'll just have to jump over him, and make sure that you move accurately, hence to avoid it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DRILL MAN || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This fight CAN be won without taking any damage, but it's a bit difficult. For one thing, Drill Man has two attacks, much like everyone else, and that does not include running into him, which is the most damaging thing of all. Drill Man can burrow himself into the ground and then appear right under you, which is his stronger attack. Plus he can fire the Drill Bombs, which have good range and very high speed, so you'll want to jump over those immediately. But worry more about the burrowing. When Drill Man burrows himself, he'll be temporarily invincible for a second, so don't use that exact moment to fire off the Dive Missile. Keep sliding all over the place, and much more often than not, you'll avoid Drill Man when he re-emerges. And he'll be invincible for one quick moment, then give you the time of the battle to hit him with the Dive Missiles. He'll take quite a few of them before he goes down, though, so keep an eye on your life bar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: GIANT DRILLER || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I get to Giant Driller's lair without taking a hit several times, and I've also beaten Giant Driller himself without taking any hits at a couple of occasions. Giant Driller is a large face (O_o) with a drill at the bottom of his chin, which can drill through the floor and make holes. This is what you should avoid; if he does this you'll take lots of damage. If he runs into you or he hits you with a bullet of his (it looks like the Pharaoh Shot) it's also damaging, although it's not too easy to get damaged. The weapon of choice here is the Ring Boomerang. Giant Driller's only weapon spot is the core around the middle, so start chasing! Giant Driller will start by levitating to the right. Don't get too close to his "ears", and shoot at the core with the boomerang for 1/7 of that gauge to disappear! Now simply repeat this while trying to avoid getting under him as best as possible. It's quite simple and easy to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: LAIR TRIO || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This isn't your everyday boss fight, but be sure not to lose it, cuz the second checkpoint isn't at the gates that come in. But anyway, the Lair Trio is the room, more or less. It's three parts of it, anyway, which will come in and out at different speeds: fast, medium, or slow. If it's fast, you'll KNOW that it's fast, and you'll take damage unless you slide under it. When it's slow, however, what you want to do is jump on the first part and then keep sliding, so when they come together you'll be on it. Jump up one of those two platforms and use the Dust Crusher on the core, which will attack by firing a large laser bullet at you. That's dangerous, and plus it's VERY hard to avoid. Feel free to send me via e-mail a way to avoid that attack and still manage to get in a lot of hits yourself, so if you want to use that E-Tank from earlier, this wouldn't be a bad time to use it. The Dust Crusher only needs to be used seven times, before you get an awesome light shower... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: ROOM WALKER || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yeah, I call this boss the room walker because it literally walks the room. How cool is THAT? This boss isn't very hard, however. In fact, this is probably even easier than the Giant Driller, if that were at all possible. In fact, there are two weapons that work particularly well against it, those being the Drill Bombs and the Pharaoh Shot. As for the Room Walker itself, all it'll do is walk through the spikes below, left up the walls, on the ceiling, down to the right, and just move all around the room firing a few bullets at you. Barely a threat at all. You ARE set on three platforms, however, and if you jump down or fall off... you are a dead man. However, I just played this whole fight out on the left platform and never even moved. Just jump and fire a charged Pharaoh Shot at it, and then it'll keep walking everywhere, and when it comes around, it'll get under you and fire four bullets in opposite direction, but if you jump between two of them, they're easy to avoid. Then it'll come up over to the left, available to be shot down, and then it explodes? Yeah, there's another one. Same old, repeat, win. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DR. COSSACK || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This fight is shamefully easy for what it actually is... in fact, you're not facing Dr. Cossack himself, since robot vs. man in an armed battle seems a bit odd, unless you're going to wear a whole lot of arm. Dr. Cossack is piloting a UFO like thingy, with pincers at the bottom. If you move directly under him, he'll pick you up and smash you down. And I'll let ya know that that's fairly painful. Plus he has the usual gun fire, but who cares about that? Focus more on Dr. Cossack. There are two elevations here, with the upper one making it easier for both you and he to hit each other. His weapon of weakness is the Dust Crusher, and it'll take quite a bit of punishment with it for him to go down, but this fight is relatively simple. Just jump in between the fire to avoid that the most easily, and as for the pincers, just slide under them when they come after you. In the mean time, use the higher ground to hit him with the Dust Crusher, and this disappointingly easy fight will be over. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: GIANT METOOL || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another really easy boss... much like the beginning of Dr. Cossack's castle, this boss is weak against the Ring Boomerang. So pull that one out, and start hitting it when it opens up. All it does is just jump around, which isn't very easy to avoid, but can be done with a good slide, and when it falls, Metools will come down from the sky. If you're in the mood to switch weapons, the Skull Barrier will take them out instantly, if they come towards you. Still, the Skull Barrier has only 14 uses in it. Something to note is that there will always be two Metools falling to the left and two on the right, and they'll exit that way, so if you get between and jump over them, they have no chance of hitting you. And that makes finishing off the Giant Metool fairly simple, since you can get in about 2-3 shots of the Ring Boomerang in between each of these. You shouldn't need to use one of those E-Tanks, so just finish it to continue... scary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: TURBO BLASTER || DIFFICULTY: EASY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Notice how all these bosses are all so extremely easy? This boss is no exception, although it is big and powerful and really scaaary. =( And like about a million other bosses in the game, its weakness is the Ring Boomerang. So start by getting on the platform on the left when it comes down, but AVOID the cannon balls that the Turbo Blaster will fire at you... those hurt a lot. Of course, the fireballs are dangerous too, but the cannon balls are your main concern. Make it over to the platform on the right, and you'll notice that the weak spot is the green core on its head. You CAN use the Drill Bombs, which are decent, but the Ring Boomerang is much more efficient. Just keep jumping when you reach it, taking specific care to avoid the cannon balls. The fireballs are okay, but if you see a cannon ball coming, jump off the platform if necessary. With some rings up its head, the Turbo Blaster will succumb very quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: SKELETON MECH || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This fight is quite a bit more difficult than anything else you've faced since the robot masters. Come to think of it, everything in both Cossack's and Wily's castles have been pushovers, up to this battle. You'll start against a normal skull, which fires pink balls of energy at you. Painful looking enough, but to easily avoid these, just stand in the middle between the far left and the skull mech, and then slide over to the right when the three come out, and then hit him. Simple as that. Skeleton Mech's weakness (right now, he has two forms) is the Ring Boomerang, so just repeat this process and enter total annihilation... then it'll reveal itself to be Dr. Wily. Heh heh heh... this is a lot harder and much faster, but for easiest results in damaging him, you'll need to use the Drill Bomb and back off. Jump and fire, then right before it hits him, press the A button again to make it explode. Continue to do this, while doing your best to avoid the fire. Standing around the middle and sliding, pulling back might work, but it'll make damaging him easier. E-Tanks certainly help, I have to say. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSS FIGHT: DR. WILY || DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And this fight is a lot harder than over half of the battles in this game, but it IS quite beatable, even if Dr. Wily will be appearing and disappearing a bit. If you have one E-Tank left, though, that's more than enough to get you through this battle. The Pharaoh Shot is his weakness, so be prepared to use that. He'll use four lights to join together and fire at you, so try and avoid that, since it packs a decent punch. Sliding works well. Yet again I'll say that the Pharaoh Shot is his weakness, but he's a little bit out of the way for it. What I recommend doing is keeping watch on where he'll appear, and while avoiding the shots that he'll fire at you, keep the charged Pharaoh Shot above your head, and when he appears, jump to hit him with the flame ball over your head. If he DOES appear at good range, though, feel free to shoot it at him. Regardless, this fight isn't the most difficult you'll ever face in the history of gaming. -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ =-= 9. CREDITS =-= -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ You, obviously, deserve something for actually taking the time to find the URL to this guide, actually say "eh, let's see how bad this is", "He's back again? Let's read this!", or "Hopefully this can help me in my quest through the game", because you deserve something for that. But with that, here are some shout-outs to whatever and whomever helped me. - Jeff "CJayC" Veasey: For running the whole site of GameFAQs, the main site that I work for. It's an awesome site, and I must commend CJayC for running this great site for 6 whole years and posting this guide. - Stephen Ng: For being the FAQ editor for IGN, which is the other site that I write for. I am honored to write for IGN, since it is a great site. I was also very glad to do an exclusive for IGN. - Psycho Penguin: He helped quite a bit with all my Mega Man guides, in quite a few different ways. Also, check out our co-authored Mega Man 3 guide... that just seriously kicks divine amounts of ass. - All the guys who first got me started writing from GameFAQs and all of my best friends like SinirothX, Psycho Penguin, Meowthnum1, CVXFREAK, Karpah, ZoopSoul, Crazyreyn, Gobicamel, asa2377 (OH EM GEE YOU TROLL), Warhawk, Cyril, supernova54321, Minesweeper, AlaskaFox, me frog, RHarrison, masterzero99, Tom Hayes, wayalla, djg40, MTincher, NickBush24, BurningFox, AquaBlast, and definitely more that I'm forgetting: you are some of the best friends that anyone can have, and I may have quit FAQing/left FCB forever without all of you. Thank you for everything and for motivating me to get my ass in gear.